What is an Aesthetic Learning Process?

Really: What is it? Since I attended a course "Aesthetic Learning Process in Kindergarten and School" last year at the University of Gothenburg, I’ve frequently been using the concept in conversations with my colleagues. But when a deeper discussion takes place, it seems lake we all have different understanding of what it means: What does the “learning” refer to? Is this about a learning process that has aesthetic qualities? And what does “aesthetic” actually mean?

I understand now that my choice to use the concept “aesthetic learning process” in the project Sculpturing Words will require many questions and answers. I’ll be short here though – just to reflect a bit after the PhD-seminars at AHO on the 21-rst and 24-th of April: I believe in merging between learning within fields traditionally called aesthetic (visual arts, dance, music, or drama), and learning through them. I know that for some art-teachers “education through arts” sounds like “misuse of arts” in intention to achieve some “more important” educational goals within other school subjects. These art-teachers are ready to fight for the importance of art education. But let us not fight or beat anyone, let us rather “join them”. (Don’t tell anyone, but my project Sculpturing Words is actually a kind of silent struggle to show that learning can take place during practical, creative activities where students are allowed to play, use their imagination and even have fun!)

The image shows a group of pre-school teacher students, performing a theatre play for their young audience. The students are showing a result of their aesthetic learning process where the product itself was the main motivation, but the learning was mostly related to the process within the group work, to the choices they had to take, to practicing the craft of performing, and of course to thir reflections.

I see similarities between “aesthetic learning process” and the concept “research by design” In both cases some kind of knowledge production is a part of the process. In both cases one has to take a lot of decisions and choices, experiment and explore, learn from own mistakes and from the reflections about the practice. In both cases one has to, in some way, be able to make the knowledge “compatible” for the others, either in order to be evaluated, or in other to present the knowledge so that others can learn in a more traditional way (by reading what has been written). But in the case of writing, we'll have to make one excuse: When children in kindergarten deal with “research by design” – someone else will have to write about the produced knowledge! ...I guess it will have to be me…